Moment in Time
by Mslead-Kytrin
Summary: Everyone got them. That one image in their head of the exact moment they would recognize their soulmate. Keith's had been burned into his heart and mind for years, but he never would've guessed what it would take to reach that perfect moment. Klance. Soulmate AU.


**Hey guys! Kytrin here with our 4th round submission for Voltron! I'm stoked that Green Team is still in the running and has even moved up to SECOND PLACE! We rock! I hope you all enjoy the story! We'll hopefully see you in the finals too!**

 **Warnings:** Mild klance. Don't like don't read.

 **Disclaimer:** We don't own Voltron. This is for fun not profit.

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 _ **Moment in Time**_

For as long as he can remember the image has always been the same. He's sitting in a room with people he knows are friends, and smiling as he rubs his dog's head happy and at peace in a way he's never been able to comprehend for most of his life. The faces are indistinct of course. They always are. Nor has he ever been able to make out what, exactly, the others are doing. Though from the scattered bits of hardware, food, and other things he can make out his first thought is his friends like video games and are nerdy.

It's a thought that makes him smile even as he can't really imagine such a thing.

Most people don't like him for a reason, and certainly he's never even remotely been friends with anyone nerdy. Not even when he attended the Garrison had that ever happened. Though Shiro had come close it was never quite right.

It had scared him, the first time the image came. He had been four at the time, younger than most, and it had been disorienting in the extreme for him to suddenly know, with blinding certainty, that in that future moment he would meet his soulmate.

His dad had been proud, if a little surprised, when he'd come running to him about the image, confused over what it was or why it had resonated so strongly with him. In the years since, it had become something of a comfort for him. A balm for those moments when things had been at their worst. Even if he never had been able to identify anyone in it.

It hadn't mattered though. The feelings in that image had always been more than enough to make him smile. Comforted in the knowledge that someday he would have such people in his life again.

Of course, life was never that simple.

He wasn't prepared for the reality of when that moment crashed down on him and brought the blurry image and feelings into focus.

Keith found his current surroundings surreal, his eyes roaming over the dorm room that was decorated in a mixture of machine grease and photos of sunny beaches.

He was sprawled out on the floor of a garrison dorm that was far more colorful and personable than his had ever been. His cosmic wolf was resting its head on his lap while he quietly observed Hunk and Lance in their natural habitat.

They had shared a dorm while in classes, and it seemed that the Garrison hadn't gotten around to clearing it out during the investigation on their disappearance.

It was strange to even be in a Galaxy Garrison room without on campus security hovering nervously by the door. Keith wasn't exactly a welcome face in this area, but it didn't bother him as much as it would have two years ago.

In fact, he almost felt a welcoming sense of nostalgia sitting there petting Yorak while listening to Lance argue whether or not Kalternecker counted as a pet.

"She's a beautiful specimen and she belongs to the group as a whole!" Lance argued, "and we no longer get to keep her because she's back on earth and we don't have the castle of lions to feed her!"

"Wait," Keith interrupted, confusion darkening his features as he tuned back into the conversation, "what're you guys arguing about?"

Lance was neck to neck with Pidge in a video game, their eyes practically glued onto the screen.

"A pet!" Lance burst, not even looking up, "I want a pet like everyone else!"

Keith blinked at that in mild surprise and bemusement before leaning back against Yorak's side, "And you want the cow?"

"Kalternecker's a great cow!" Lance replied hotly as he leaned into his turn on screen, "She would make an _awesome_ pet!"

"A pet you couldn't realistically keep or maintain." Keith drawled, "At least the Garrison doesn't need to build a stable for Yorak or Pidge's floating furballs."

"Space Caterpillars Keith." Pidge replied without looking away.

"Whatever." He waved dismissively, "The point is they can live with us without much more maintenance than meat for Yorak. A cow doesn't work like that."

The tinny sound of a fatal crash has Lance groaning as he dropped his controller and turned to glare at Keith, "Well it's not fair!" He huffed, "I should be able to have a pet if I want to!"

Keith raised an eyebrow in amusement, "So why don't you?" He asked mildly, "Maybe just pick something other than a cow."

"You could have a gerbil." Hunk spoke up cheerfully, "Or a hamster. My cousin had one of those, but then it died..."

"I don't want a rodent Hunk!" Lance pouted, "That's Allura's schtick. And I don't see why it would be so difficult to keep Kalternecker here. It's not like this place doesn't have the whole freaking desert to build in."

By the time he was done he was waving his hands wildly at his amused looking friend and Keith froze, his eyes going wide as the significance of the moment slammed into him with all the force of a Galran attack.

His heart thundered in his ears and everything else fell away as he stared at Lance as he zeroed in on him. This was it. _This was the moment._ The moment he'd always been told would come, but had only half believed in despite how comforting the incomplete image had been.

And it was centered wholly on Lance.

Lance who had also frozen and was staring at him in absolute shock.

He struggled to breathe under the weight of what he was feeling. He'd had feelings of some sort or another for Lance for _years_ now. He'd even tried subtly letting the other paladin know, but that had blown up spectacularly in his face, and since then he'd tried to dismiss them as nothing more than a stupid crush.

But every single one of them came rushing back as he stared at the man he'd been in love with for so long.

Everyone was supposed to go through this moment. Keith told himself this in the back of his head, chanting through the words quietly back and forth as he tried to make sense of it all. Lance was in mid-gesture, his mouth hanging open just a fraction as the strongest sense of de-ja-vu rocked through them.

Everyone went through this.

It was a single defining moment to tell them who their soulmate was, and it seemed like Keith's had finally arrived.

Slowly, Keith rose to his feet, swaying on the spot and a crooked smile drifting over his face. It was slow, shy, and hesitant.

Because he had carried that image with him since he was a child. It brought him comfort when very little else could even begin to touch the darkness that slowly encroached on him.

This was what made him happy, filled him with hope.

He could only pray that Lance, for all his dreams and playmating ways could help him make use of all the jumbled words striking in his head.

Pidge and Hunk both went still when Keith and Lance went still as statues, the former looking absolutely shocked and almost a little delighted by how they seemed to be caught with one another.

"History in the making Hunk," Pidge hissed at Hunk and yanked hard on his sleeve, "A pair has matched one another, and even though these two are probably the worst match I've ever seen... you can't deny that dumb-love look on their face."

"No. Way." Hunk breathed in awe, while Keith took a hesitant step towards Lance.

"Keith?" Lance squeaked uncertainly, as if he couldn't quite believe this was really happening, "I..." He flailed his hands a little and Keith couldn't contain a soft chuckle if he wanted to.

Perhaps before, in what felt like another lifetime, before riding the space whales and surviving in the wild with his mother for two whole years, he would've reacted badly to this. But he was two years older now. And he'd developed a balance he'd never had before.

He didn't try to be wholly human anymore, and his acceptance of his Galra side, and the flaws of it, had done more to help him gain the focus Shiro always wanted to instill in him than anything else.

Even if he _did_ still tend to lose it when he panicked.

"I should've known." He murmured back as he slowly stepped up to Lance, giving him plenty of time to back away if he wanted to, "I should've known from the very beginning. No one else gets under my skin like you."

He pressed himself into Lance's space, his expression soft, if a bit hesitant, "I hope this time you're more open to what I'm offering?"

"I..." Lance fumbled and blinked in clear confusion, "You offered me this before?"

Keith snorted out a laugh, "Clearly I was _too_ subtle for you." His lips twitched upwards in a wry smirk, "I guess I shouldn't be surprised by that either."

Lance's mouth turned downward, as if he couldn't decide whether to be insulted by that or not, and Keith decided to fend off anything else said by leaning forward to cover those lips with his own.

It was soft and sweet and featherlight and Keith knew immediately that he would never get enough of such things. He pulled back after a moment, the taste of Lance's lips lingering on his like the sweetest honey and offered him a smile. Not one of the smiles the other paladin was used to, but a real one. Soft and real and so very rarely shown that most tended to forget it existed.

At Lance's numb look, Pidge leaned in to whisper to Hunk, her eyes wide.

"Houston, we have lift off," she whispered.

Lance threw his arms around Keith a moment later, laughing in a wild tangle of limbs as he tackled the taller male to the floor as Yorak fled for cover.

Keith laughed as well, the picture he had painted in his mind since he was four, spilling out at the edges and filling in all the crevices within him.

Finally he understood what his father meant when he had such pride over Keith's searing memory burn within him. Over the happiness Keith had in that memory and the sense of home it brought him.

Surrounded by his friends, no - his family, Keith couldn't be happier.

A laugh bubbled up in him and he didn't even try to contain it as he hugged Lance close, "I take it that's an acceptance?" He grinned up at his soulmate, and didn't that word just resonate down to his toes?

"You're an idiot Keith." Lance laughed back, "As if I'd refuse my soulmate. C'mon man."

Keith felt the happiness in him bubble and swell and he felt as if he was flying Black at breakneck speed only in the best possible way now. There were still things to think about, things they had to talk about. Lance's feelings for Allura hadn't escaped his notice despite how the other paladin had tried to hide it.

But that was for later. Right now was perfect and wonderful and he would forever keep it imprinted in his mind and on his heart.

He buried his nose in Lance's cheek and stole a soft kiss, uncaring of the way Pidge and Hunk were squealing in the background, "How about a cat instead of a cow?"

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 _ **And that's the story! Apologies for it being so short compared to our usual work, but this round came at a bad time for Mslead and I with work and everything, so we were a bit rushed. I hope you all enjoyed it anyway! We'll see you next time!**_

 _ **GO TEAM GREEN LION!**_


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